Parents' Expectations for Preadolescent Sons' Behavioral Autonomy: A Longitudinal Study of Correlates and Outcomes

In a longitudinal study, we examined the nature and correlates of parents' expectations about sore' behavioral autonomy in adolescence. When their sons were in 6th and 10th grades, parents completed a teen timetable, indicating when they expected to grant privileges to and require responsibilities of their sons. Although mothers and fathers of 6th graders had timetables, these age expectations were not consistently associated with either sons' or parents' characteristics. Nonetheless, fathers' timetables for privileges at preadolescence predicted sons' midadolescent academic and social outcomes 4 years later. Fathers who expected to grant early privileges had midadolescent sons who were less motivated and performed less well in school and engaged in more social misconduct. Mothers' timetables were unrelated to their sons' midadolescent behavior. These results implicate father' timetables prior to adolescence as important influences on boys' academic and social behaviors during adolescence.